November 30, 2023

Division of Academic Affairs Accolades – November 2023

Accolades

Parker Receives Award from Learning Communities Institute

Lauren Parker, MA, director of Student Services on the UAMS Northwest Campus, was recently awarded the 2022 Susan Schultz Award of The Learning Communities Institute. This award was presented to Parker for significant contributions to the development of learning communities in medical education. The Learning Communities Institute (LCI) promotes the creation and implementation of learning communities with an initial focus on undergraduate medical education institutions in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Read more at https://www.learningcommunitiesinstitute.org/whoweare.

 

Strahan Presents at Regional Library Conference

Kat Strahan, MSLIS, AHIP, assistant professor and UAMS Northwest Campus librarian, presented the “lightning talk” “But You Gotta Have Friends: One Librarian’s Experience with Restoring a Local Library Association” at the recent 2023 Joint Chapter Meeting between the South Central Chapter and the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association. In the two-minute presentation, she discusses her work to revitalize the Northwest Arkansas Library Association (NWALA). The presentation can be viewed on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/embed/UZ8vWCHxT-o?si=6DiPvmuSIZNt66rv.

 

Four Chancellor’s Circle Awards go to Academic Affairs Teams, Projects

Four proposals from teams in the Division of Academic Affairs received Chancellor’s Circle Grants during an annual ceremony held Oct. 23.

UAMS awarded 13 grants overall, totaling $213,000 were awarded by The Chancellor’s Circle, UAMS’ premier annual giving society. UAMS uses the grants to help attract distinguished scholars, purchase state-of-the-art medical equipment, provide seed monies for innovative health and wellness programs, and finance research projects of high potential to the state’s economic and social development.

The Academic Affairs projects receiving grants included:

• Connecting Faculty Development with Student Success, a program of the Educational & Student Success Center, will help faculty develop valuable skills that will impact the success of students. Accepting the $6,125 grant were Helen Hu, Ph.D., director of the UAMS Educational and Student Success Center; Marybeth Norcross, M.Ed., teaching and learning specialist; Wendy Ward, Ph.D., associate provost for faculty in the UAMS Division of Academic Affairs and professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics; and Kat Neill, Pharm.D., associate provost for academics and associate professor in the College of Pharmacy.
• The UAMS 12th Street Health & Wellness Center will add and replace existing equipment, including increasing the number of ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes, replacing monitors and addressing standard upkeep around the center. Madeline Neubauer, Pharm.D., assistant director of patient care, and Sydney Darling, director of finance and administration for the Center’s Student Board of Directors, accepted the $10,000 grant.
• The UAMS Center for Faculty Excellence will host a spring conference and a monthly series, inviting national experts in artificial intelligence to speak to students and staff. Wendy Ward, M.D., associate provost for faculty in the UAMS Division of Academic Affairs and professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, accept the $18,800 grant.
• To combat food insecurity and promote healthy diets in Little Rock’s 12th Street corridor, the College of Medicine’s Department of Culinary Medicine will provide cooking demonstrations, information on preparation of healthy meals on a budget, and nutrition and lifestyle education to participants, with workshops hosted at the new 12th Street Community Cafe Café. Alyssa Frisby, M.S., RD, LD, instructor in the Culinary Medicine Program, and Gloria Richard-Davis, M.D., MBA, executive director of Division for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and professor in the College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, accepted the $28,800 grant.

Since the inception of the Chancellor’s Circle in 1984, donors have given more than $9 million to support UAMS’ mission. The funds awarded in the ceremony will support key mission areas in health care education, research and patient care.

“It is always encouraging to see how the Chancellor’s Circle grants are being utilized, and this year’s projects are impressive,” said John Erck, vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement. “I’m inspired by the great work that is made possible by the generosity of our Chancellor’s Circle members and their investment in the health and wellness of Arkansas.”

To learn more about the Chancellor’s Circle, visit giving.uams.edu/chancellorscircle.

 

Dickinson Achieves Healthcare Simulation Certification

Karen Dickinson, MBBS, MD, MEd, FRCS, director of IPE Simulation and Clinical Skills Training in the Office of Interprofessional Education and Centers for Simulation Education and an assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Surgery, recently received notification of certification as a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator-Advanced® (CHSE-A®) from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. The certification is a portfolio-based certification for leaders in healthcare simulation.  This certification distinguishes those who have proven themselves to be advanced educators in their practice in healthcare simulation and serve as mentors and examples to others in the field.

 

Hu, Norcross Present at AECT Conference

Helen Hu, Ph.D., director of the UAMS Educational and Student Success Center, and Marybeth Norcross, M.Ed., teaching and learning specialist in the Educational and Student Success Center, recently presented “Connecting Faculty Development with Student Success: A Needs Assessment. Concurrent Presentation,” at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) International Conference, held Oct. 17 in Orlando, Florida.

 

Leath, Travis Talk Patient Education Portal at September Conference

Katie Leath, MPH, MA, director of the Center for Health Literacy, and Sarah Travis from the UAMS ServiceNow team presented on their work to develop the new UAMS Patient Education Portal at the Health Care Education Association virtual conference in September. The presentation “Designing a Digital Solution to Manage Custom Patient Education Materials” discussed the importance of and the challenges associated with managing custom materials, the need for automated processes to increase efficiency, and the process used to develop the digital solution at UAMS.

 

Leath to be Health Literacy Podcast Guest

Katie Leath, MPH, MA, director of the Center for Health Literacy, was an invited guest recently on Helen Osborn’s Health Literacy Out Loud podcast to air in December.